//------------------------------// // Being a writer ain't easy. // Story: Twilight's book // by Bronyofcuba //------------------------------// It was a lovely afternoon for Twilight Sparkle, she had already finished all of her royal duties in the morning and no sound was emited from the outside nor the inside of the castle except for the quiet singing of birds and the casual wind blowing through the library's window, perfect for her daily reading. She walked inside the library, took a random book, sat on her reading couch and started her favourite activity of all time, reading. She had prepared that afternoon with extreme dedication, even triple checked everything she had to do in a list. The young alicorn had already done her royal duties, she had told each of her friends her plans for the afternoon so they wouldn't interrupt her unless it was extremely important, she posted a sign on the castle's front door telling everypony that it was her day off, so none would seek advice from her that Sunday, she had made Spike cook her dinner and prepare some snacks and most important of all, she had her reading couch ready. It was cyan coloured, nothing extravagant about it, just more comfortable to her than the rest, it helped to stay focused and not constantly switching positions which distracted and made it difficult to enjoy the activity properly. She spent the whole afternoon reading several books of adventure, science and even some mystery. Her ability to comprehend the books perfectly while reading them at very high speeds had no match in Equestria. At the end of the day she had read a total of seven books and as the bookworm she was, she remembered them all from beginning to end. The afternoon had gone right how she expected, no disturbance from anypony, all the previously planned books plus more had been read, it was hard to believe nothing interrupted her during that time but she wasn't going to complain. "Been a while since I had a good reading session, I needed that." Said the purple mare as she stood up and reorganized the books in their respective shelves. She was about to leave the library to get some sleep when an idea came to her head. She had read innumerable amounts of books but she never actually wrote one, but it would change that very night. And so she took a seat in a table, followed by the retrieval of quills, ink, papers and some books related to the writing topic and started her very own and first book. There was a literature contest taking place some days afterwards where she was supposed to be part of the jury, no longer, she would now participate as well to find out how good was she at writing, there wasn't any prize after all. And so she read everything she could about writing through the night and when she was done, the real deal begun, to write. Taking into account everything she had learned so far, an adventure book was forged, out of ink as the metal and her mind as the blacksmith, with great speed. When she was done there was already sunlight, warning every creature the arrival of the morning once again. Twilight could barely keep her eyes open anymore, she had used all of her will to read her book and correct her mistakes once it was done, but it was all worth it, as it was a masterpiece that would surely win the contest. She remembered that she had to warn the judges about her change of mind but there was enough time since the contest would take place in two days. Two days later: Twilight was really excited, in the past two days she had read her book more than ten times in order to not have a single mistake, she had to win, no matter the cost. And so she waited alongside the other writers in a waiting hall inside twilight's castle since it was where the contest would be located. There were mares and stallions alike, some with glasses, some with ties, there was even a stallion with a ruff in his neck, he was by far the weirdest of all. Another mare trotted out of the castle's library and spoke. "Good morning fillies and gentlecolts. My name is Safe Grammar and I am the replacement for princess Twilight Sparkle in the jury." She continued. "The process is easy. Now we will take your books and evaluate them in the period of a week, when we are done you will receive a letter with everypony's place in the contest and your book alongside it." She opened the door from where she had entered and gestured for everypony to go inside. "Please..." They did as gestured. When they entered there were five tables, four had a judge and one was empty. Safe Grammar entered last and spoke again. "Leave your book with any of them and leave the rest to us." Twilight flew with great speed and left hers with a stallion with black hair billowing down to his ears and with a carefully trimmed mustache. She was the first to deliver her's, too excited to keep her feelings inside any longer. After the contestants delivered their's they left the castle except for Twilight as it was her home. In the week the judges entered every day to analyze the books from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, having a lunch break from twelve to a half past one and then resuming work. The day they finished they left, but before that Safe Grammar approached Twilight. "Im sorry but I was not able to convince them of giving you the results earlier, tomorrow you will recieve your letter as everyone else" "Oh, well. Don't worry about it, I'll wait" Said Twilight with a smile. She wished to recieve it earlier but well, it was just another day, it would go by fast. "Alright then, I will take my leave, if you have any question with the results you can visit me in Canterlot. Here, have my card." "I don't think I'll need it, but I'll take it anyway." "Who knows? You might need it. Goodbye." "Bye." A day later, 7:00 am: The alicorn already had recieved the much expected letter and with her magic was levitating it to the kitchen table to eat breakfast while reading it. She sat on a chair and said to Spike who was just about to finish the cooking. "How much you bet I won Spike?" "Nothing! I know you won, you are the greatest bookworm I have ever met, betting against you would be dumb!" "Ah, come on Spike. Just a tiny little bet." "Alright" Said Spike unamused. "What about a gem?" "A gem then!" And with great excitement she opened the letter and as soon as the results were visible, her smile disappeared, replaced by shock. "What!?" Spike took notice of her reaction and answered with excitement. "So I won?"